Only North’s leaders can stop insurgency, says Oke

The Presiding Bishop Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Ibadan, Oyo State, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, has said only northern leaders and politicians can end the Boko Haram insurgency.

The cleric urged the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Saad III, other emirs and North’s political leaders to put heads together to end the sect’s insurgency within a week.

Oke addressed reporters yesterday at the church headquarters, at the Old Ife Road, Olaogun, Ibadan.

He said: “The church in Nigeria is putting it to His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, to call his emirs and political leaders in the North to come out and disown Boko Haram, if their hands are clean.

“The church in Nigeria is putting it to them that their hands are not clean.

“…Let them sincerely come out and say, ‘Boko Haram, we disown you’. I tell you, the sect will disappear in one week.

“If they (insurgents) don’t have a place to hide, they won’t be there again. The Sultan is the only person who can play the role of Desmond Tutu (South African Nobel Peace prize winning Bishop) in Nigeria today. He should come out and do this.”

The cleric also accused the insurgents of smearing Islam as a religion.

According to him, the sect’s action has impacted negatively on the image of Islam, known as a religion of peace.

Oke said: “Boko Haram is on a three-dimensional mission in Nigeria. First, they have declared a war against the people of Nigeria; they have declared a war against the church of God and thirdly, Boko Haram is on a smear campaign against Islam. It has portrayed that it hates the church, Western education and Christians.”

“They are making Islam to lose its good image. The game is up against Boko Haram and Northern leaders.”

Oke has led over 10,000 Christians to pray for the release of the Chibok girls.

The cleric said Islam was being smeared because the girls were being forced to become Muslims against their wish.

He urged the Federal Government to stop playing politics with the lives of the innocent schoolgirls.